Martin J. Schade | Jamaica lacks intrinsic value

On August 30, 1982 I came to teach philosophy at St Michael’s Seminary, now Theological College, as a Jesuit scholastic. My choosing to come to Jamaica 40 years ago is a most significant aspect of my life. Jamaica has become my home, my nationality, with our wonderful geography, climate, creativity in music, dance, arts, sports, and much more.

The wonderful consequences of this move is that it motivated me to become a naturalised Jamaican, interestingly, also on August 30, 1994. As such, I bought a piece of Jamrock and have my own Jamaican home; I produced a musical CD, ‘Riddim of Creation’, with known Jamaican artistes; danced with Ashe and other Jamaican dance groups in the Millennium Mass 2000 (December 2000); and published my book, ‘Incarnation: The Harmony of One Love in the Totality of Realty’, which expresses the philosophical perspective I discovered being here in my/our Jamaica.

With all these magnificent aspects of my life in Jamaica, and as a naturalised Jamaican, I have discovered that there still lacks a fundamental element of our being Jamaican: our lack of understanding, experiencing, promoting intrinsic value in ALL things.

Intrinsic means having value in and of itself. Jesuits have the motto, “Find God in all things!” so I came to Jamaica with this vision. This is the epitome of intrinsic value, but intrinsic value is independent of one’s belief in the divine. Everything in all of reality has intrinsic value, from a sub-atomic wave or particle to the universe as a whole.

The opposing position is instrumental or extrinsic value which states that things have value in that they offer some form of external benefit.

A BLANK SLATE

As a philosopher, I immediately began to recognise how “British” we are in our underlying vision of reality. We are products of the philosophy of British Empiricism which states that ALL knowledge is from experience. It holds the position that our mind is a tabula rasa, a blank slate. Empiricism is an opposing position to Rationalism which promotes the position that humans have innate and intrinsic knowledge.

Our exam-based educational system focuses, almost entirely, on the instrumental value of education, i.e., vocations and money.

Jamaica has recently been concerned with critical thinking, which, in fact, is a primary element of the intrinsic nature of education. Yet, we simply talk about it, we create Band-Aid remedies, such as calling our most recent first exam PEP. But it does not teach, educate, and inform genuine intrinsic value. Education is only an instrument for something greater.

A colleague once asked me, “How do we teach intrinsic value?” We teach intrinsic value in all of reality in the same way we teach our children about other nonmaterial, experiential aspects of life: faith, love, trust, hope, imagination, etc., etc.

Marcus Garvey, our first national hero, is a big advocate of intrinsic value. Education is good in itself and we can learn and teach ourselves by reading and writing, as he himself did.

OUR ETHICS

Our lack of intrinsic value also comes in our ethics. Besides British Empiricism determining our education, there is also British Utilitarianism. This is an ethics which states that we act according to that which brings about the “greatest good, for the greatest number”. The moral goodness of any act is its consequences. An act is morally good entirely for instrumental purposes.

When I ask people, “Why are you good?”, the majority of replies is “I want to go to heaven” or “I don’t want to go to hell”. Being good, in and of itself, is not the moral incentive.

As we move into our 60th decade of Independence, we must discover, understand, teach and utilise in our educational system and moral behaviour a more intrinsic value in all things. It is good to learn, in and of itself! It is good to be morally good, in and of itself!

As I publicly and consistently say, Jamaica has so much positive, creative energy. We much utilise this great energy by recognising the intrinsic value of all things and become a true talawah in this vast, global world we are in.

Bless up, my beloved Jamaica! I have been with you 40 of our 60 years. May we truly be the GREAT nation we can be!

Nuff Respect!!!! I am very proud to say I am Jamaican!

Martin J. Schade is a Jesuit. Email feedback to martinjschade@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com